Ancient Egyptian Men and Their Obsession With Makeup

Their beauty standards influence our lives even today

An artefact of an ancient Pharaoh, Tutankhamun | Photo by Robert Thiemann on Unsplash

There is a massive valley in Egypt on the west bank of the River Nile, just opposite the modern-day city of Luxor. This valley is like the present-day White House and is called the Egyptian Valley of the Kings and Queens. Here, the pharaohs and powerful nobles of the Noble Kingdom lived from the 16th to the 11th century B.C.

The Egyptian Valley of the Kings and Queens, where the Pharaohs and the nobles lived (left) and the Deir-el-Medina, which homes the servants who worked for these Kings and Queens (right) | Image sources: Flickr, Wikimedia Commons

Near this valley lies the ruins of Deir-el-Medina. It was an ancient Egyptian village where those artists and craftsmen lived, who worked at the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. In exchange for the work they provided for the Egyptian royals, these workers were compensated with meat and vegetables. Over centuries, this small village of Deir-el-Medina evolved into a community that functioned on its independent government and could provide for itself.

Much later, during the rule of Ramses III in the 1100s B.C., these workers faced several issues. For starters, their food supplies would reach them after many delays. Even their massage oils were not provided on time by the government. These issues forced the workers to quit their…